By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 2 -- How low will UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous go to sweep under the carpet the 126 rapes in Minova by its partners in the Congolese Army?
How far will media “partners” go in helping Ladsous claim he got assurances that he refuses to disclose, even to them?This far.
On March 28 Inner City Press asked at the noon briefing about the rapes. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky said a deadline for action of April 1 had been set, and had been reiterated by Ladsous to Congolese foreign minister Tshibanda on March 27.
But later on March 28 when Inner City Press put the question twice to Ladsous on UN Television he refused to answer. And while Tshibanda did answer Inner City Press' question about the rape, he was dismissive of the UN's ultimatum.
But after Inner City Press asked again at the UN noon briefing on April 1, now Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said that some unspecified assurances had been given. He said the UN was waiting for official notification, and said the deadline was at midnight.
After midnight Inner City Press wrote to Del Buey and to Nesirky, on European time in Andorra with Ban Ki-moon, asking what the assurances were, or what the UN would do.Neither sent any answer.
So at noon Inner City Press asked Del Buey again. He reiterated the previous day's comment, that assurances were given but he would not or could not say what they were.
Other than a sign of further UN stonewalling it didn't seem newsworthy, having written the exact same story the day before with Del Buey's identical noon briefing answer to Inner City Press.
But after the noon briefing, Reuters published a story with no criticism or analysis of the delay by UN Peacekeeping, using exactly the quote Del Buey gave the day before -- but this time put in the mouth of Ladsous' spokesman Andre-Michel Essoungou.
Where did Essoungou say or type and e-mail exactly the same thing as Del Buey said at the previous day's noon briefing? The story doesn't say.
Nor, understandably perhaps, does the Reuters story say that Essoungou on exactly this question of Minova rapes seized the UN Television microphone to try to avoid an Inner City Press question to Ladsous. Video here.
In fact, when Inner City Press asked the question of the Minova rapes on November 27 on UNTV, Ladsous refused to answer it and summoned favored scribes, including Louis Charbonneau of Reuters the author of the April 2 story, into the hall for a private briefing. Video here. Should that have been mentioned? Reasonable minds may disagree. Watch this site.
